Why Thyroid Causes Hair Loss

by Neil on January 3, 2022

Thyroid and Hair Loss

It can be quite frustrating and depressing when you’re confronted by sickness and still need to face a persistent problem like hair loss. A sickness, like a problem with your thyroid glands can douse any mirth in your body. Whether they are over-active thyroid glands or under-active thyroid glands, any of these two can wreak havoc on your system and they will both result in hair loss.

Hair loss has been observed to be a common side effect of thyroidism (whether hyper or hypo) and it appears to affect the conversion of testosterone on the scalp to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which attacks the hair follicle. The growth thus becomes affected resulting in hair loss. To better understand, in a normal hair growth cycle, 90% of the hair is in the growth cycle with the remaining 10% is in the resting cycle. The growth cycle allows the hair to shoot out from the scalp, making the hair appear longer. The resting cycle is that time when the hair that’s not so healthy gets pushed out from the roots and new hair is grown in its place. This is the normal hair loss that we know about. Normal hair loss means 50 to 100 hair strands are lost every day.

Now, when the growth cycle is disrupted because of the hormonal changes caused by the Thyroid condition, more and more hair is pushed into the resting cycle and thus gets literally “thrown out” from your scalp. It’s tough to beat this kind of hair loss because the success of the treatment is dependent on when you’ll be getting stronger, strong enough to be able to stabilize your body.

Another cause of hair loss related to the thyroid is the medical treatment for the disease. In order to cure thyroidism, you need several doses of radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is the process by which your body is bombarded by radiation to kill the present damaging cells causing the disease, The bad thing about this is that even good cells get irradiated and exactly why you have hair loss when undergoing this treatment. Your hair is among the first to suffer.

Treatments usually depend on the severity of the condition. As soon as the treatment is over, you simply need to bide your time for the body to recover and get back on its feet. Once your body has gained back its strength and you hair loss is down to a minimal, it’s only a matter of maintaining your body’s balance so that hair loss won’t be a problem ever again.

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